Stranger

Everyone perceives things differently, for example, have six people smell fresh ginger essential oil on an unlabeled scent strip and ask them what they smell.

Most of us realize this as young children in school, for me it came as bitter medicine when the teacher would ask a question and I would be the only one who saw things in an alternate light. I was considered weird, and to add salt to the wound being from another country no one had ever heard of and having unusual items in my lunch just made it worse.

I remember a vivid experience in kindergarden when I decided to paint the entire paper yellow, without any imagery what-so-ever. The teacher didn't know what to think of my act of artistic expression and after grilling me in front of my parents chalked me up to being a strange child.

This continued to happen even in art school, a professional illustrator and a bit as a perfumer, since I was very outspoken about people in the industry calling a fragrance natural when it had synthetics or animal ingredients.

When setting up to teach botanical perfume I decided to empower the student and their intuition, what I term as circular thinking, instead of a more rigid "this is the way things are" approach. Sure learning the basics is important, but if you remove a persons essence from the equation, you are left with very little creativity. Creativity requires a bit of chaos, in fact it is usually birthed from dis-order or falling down rabbit holes.

Yesterday afternoon, while spending time in my friend Liza’s garden with her black cat, I came across a thick pile of the most exquisite leaves with bright magenta veins. I went about taking a few photos and then this morning the thought of the Acanthus leaf pattern by William Morris wafted into my mind out of no where. Here are the two images side by side, there's a similarity, but they are also quite different.

On the left is the photo of the maple leaves with the acanthus leaf pattern on the right, although they are different there is an essence about the two that makes them similar because of the pattern, texture and color...its a resonance.

The word resonance is defined as evoking a string association. In terms of fragrance, associations can be quite varied due to culture and ones personal olfactory terrain. For example one person will love lavender and find it calming, while another will associate the word with a bad experience and thus find the scent emotionally troubling. Now, if you ask a person to put the scent into a fragrance family, they will tend to look at you blankly unless you give them some prompts like, "Does it smell like flowers, green, earthy, fruity or like wood?" Asking an individual questions, instead of telling them, is empowering and leads to creativity.

Creative perception often comes from courageously following an inner muse, even when others disagree. It's not an easy path, its full of crazy twists and turns, not knowing what is up from down, being called names, shot at and even killed. What is certain is a wild adventure with plenty of stories, even after you've left this realm.

Images:
Ink Blot Test by Inudragon
Scent strip photo by Rebecca Fishman in my California studio
Maple leaf photo by me (Roxana Villa) with Acanthus leaf pattern by William Morris

Text © Roxana Villa

Marilyn Neuhart 1930 - 2017

As I entered the Girard wing at the Museum of International Folk Art here in Santa Fe, I stopped abruptly and had to catch my breath, stunned at how much it "felt" and resembled the interior of the Neuhart house in Hermosa Beach, CA. It comes of no surprise of course, given that Alexander Girard and Marilyn Neuhart formed a creative partnership in 1961 when she created embroidered dolls for his Textiles & Objects shop in NYC.

Although I had visited the museum and Girard wing in the 80's with Ben, Marilyn's son, the shock of the shared kindred spirit of these two designers was much more palatable, perhaps because of her recent departure from this earthy realm.

Marilyn was born on March 3, 1930, in Long Beach, California. Her birth date 03-30-30 seems extremely auspicious with all those three's and zeros. Three is the number of Venus and the Empress, it is associated with imagination, creativity and the artist.

I always felt Marilyn knew she was an Empress, especially when I remember her sitting at the head of the Thanksgiving table with her feast spread out for everyone to not only savor but also take in the beauty of her orchestration.

She attended Long Beach public schools, Long Beach City College and UCLA. Marilyn began her long career as a freelance designer in the Los Angeles area since her graduation. She taught design, painting and color theory at UCLA, UCLA Extension and at East Los Angeles Junior College.

Marilyn and her husband John Neuhart, worked together professionally since their marriage, and collaborated on numerous design projects, including graphics, films and exhibitions. From 1980 to 1998 they were partners in the design firm Neuhart Donges Neuhart, whose clients included the IBM Corporation, Herman Miller, Inc., The Huntington Library and Art Gallery, the Doheny Library, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Government of Taiwan and local businesses and institutions.

John and Marilyn authored and designed of three books on the history of the Eames Office. The first was Eames Design (1989) followed by Eames House (1994) and the two book set The Story of Eames Furniture, a comprehensive history of furniture development in the Eames Office.

Together John and Marilyn were an inspirational team, working together to create beautiful invites to dinner parties at their home, labels and cards for the holidays or the magnificent doll house that took over six years to create for Eve. Below are a few details of the doll house, including a tiny basket with three of Marilyn's dolls as miniatures. The bright, colorful palette and since of whimsy that was part of their signature weaves throughout every part of their life.

The day Ben and I graduated from Otis College of Art and Design, back in the eighties, Marilyn made us glorious crowns for us to wear that were given to us in a special box made by John. Talk about feeling special! 

There is also a photo of her with Ray Eames and John sitting on the lawn of MacArther Park waiting the graduation ceremony to begin. I believe the photo was taken by her son Andrew Neuhart.

I'd love to share more pictures of their truly wonderful and very authentic style, but the CD's are in a box some where within the scary storage closet here in our temporary rental. I'm not sure if I can readily find it.  I'll take a look in a few weeks when my time should be a but more expansive. What's become quite obvious, as I sift through all the photos of John and Marilyn over the last thirty plus years, is that I'll be sharing more about them and their legacy as designers.

Here's a little quote from Marilyn...

"I started to quilt when I was a small child sitting with my mother and my aunts 

over a quilting frame. I continued to sew, albeit intermittently, as I went through 

high school and college. After I left teaching for a period and with two small children, 

I became a fulltime freelance graphic designer and once again took up my needle in earnest. 

After making small cloth dolls for my children and friends, I made a doll for designer 

Alexander Girard, who asked me to make a large number of them the new Textiles & Objects 

shop he was designing in New York City for the Herman Miller Furniture Company. 

Over the next few years  (in the early 1960's), I made nearly 2,000 dolls 

for the shop and for  Girard's exhibition projects." 

Read more about Marilyn by jumping to this little blog I created for her back in 2007 as Christmas gift, naively thinking she might want to contribute to it by sharing her wit, sense of design, inspiration, recipes and abundant stories. In hind site, it was most likely a projection on my part, I was so inspired, in awe actually, by her sense of style and her very Aires take charge and get things done attitude.

Once I asked her how she had managed to do so much as a mother of two children, wife, designer, cook and creator extraordinaire, etc., her response was..."Just keep going, without thinking about it." Hence her chosen name for the blog "Don't Be A Bump on a Blog." She had absolutely no patience for laziness. As I edit this post, adding more memories and photos, it occurs to me that perhaps I will add more on her blog, building it as a resource for those of you her are inspired by her as well as John.

Besides having a great sense of color, pattern, texture, design and flavor, she was also a bit of a sensualist. Marilyn liked to take baths and enjoyed beautiful scents. Her favorite fragrances were 4711 and roses, the photo below is a vintage bottle of the illustrious perfume that she had in the guest bathroom. I would gift her bottles of my Blossom cologne and bath salts for the holidays and her birthday.

Lucky for us, House Industries worked with Marilyn and John to recreate some of their wonderful designs such as a poster of the hand print, which I've always been a huge fan of.

Marilyn passed on September 1st, 2017 just as Greg and I were driving through the desert on our way to Santa Fe. In a way, one of the many reasons I am living in Santa Fe today is because of Marilyn. She and her fabulous style which will live on for years to come, especially if books about her creative life and dolls are published. Marilyn was an integral thread in the Mid Century modern design revolution whose craft-womanship is an inspiration, particularly to all the makers who are part of the current DIY culture.

See more of the Neuhart house and Marilyn's fantastic style in a few of these posts here at the journal.

Photos: Museum of International Folk Art,  John and Marilyn's home in Hermosa Beach, a variety of shots at the Neuhart house of Marilyn's embroidery, quilt, handprint, 4711 perfume bottle and Mexican statues display.

Edited April 13, 2018

Cabinet of Curiosity: Week 1

The creative Cabinet of Curiosity fling began on Friday, March 7th has turned into an almost daily ritual. Each day, if inspired, I've been creating little scenes using bits and pieces of collected paraphenilia ranging from herbs, leaves, found objects, ribbons – anything that will add to the visual story. The composition is usually captured via my phone and then posted to instagram, tumblr, twitter and facebook. If I am not too busy I will also do some shots with the SLR camera as well.

I'll keep going with it as long as time permits and I am having fun. Eventually I'd like to get more conceptual with them, but for now its serving as play time.

Here are the shots via my camera which I did a little editing on, beginning on Saturday the 8th leading up until today. Enjoy!

Musing

I had intended on attending a trade show today but couldn't get a pass, thus my day was fairly open and then the muse walked in. She arrives very spontaneously and usually leaves a trail of art and disaster since creativity is, after all, a bit like a hurricane.

There's a nice article about creativity at the Huffington Post which describes the attributes of creative thinkers. Some of them are how Greg and I function, very out of the box and in the circular warm embrace of the Goddess.

18 Things Highly Creative People Do:
They day dream
They observe everything
They work the hours that work for them
They take time for solitude
They turn life's obstacles around
They seek out new experiences
They fail up
They ask the big questions
They people-watch
They take risks
They view all of life as an opportunity for self-expression
They follow their true passions
They get out of their own heads
They lose track of time
They surround themselves with beauty
They connect the dots
They constantly shake things up
They make time for mindfulness

What resulted from the presence of the Muse today was a continuation of the Cabinet of Curiosity type photos. The ones I took today are more of a sketch, as I'd like to get more conceptual with them. I loved the process of losing myself in the flow of creating, this is much more do-able in the visual arts than the aromatics. In perfume work I am constantly taking notes and documenting what I am doing, which encages both the linear and circular thinking, where as drawing, photography, etc. is much more round and lush.

I turned my studio, the kitchen, the living room (which is already a second studio space for me) the computer studio upside down looking for herbs, leaves, roots, letterpress paraphernalia, ribbons, sea shells, etc. Time to go do some clean up before tackling more blending this evening...although I'd really like to go see The Grand Budapest Hotel film debuting this weekend.

By the way both Hedera helix and Gracing the Dawn are melding quite nicely, expect to see them back next week with a report. Besides the muse leaving a mess in her wake I also discovered a jasmin sambac bloom in the garden, which means Blossom will be arriving back shortly.

Comic Con: Costumes

The costumes at the San Diego Comic Con(vention) each year are pretty spectacular, a true testament to the creative spirit. Although we weren't browsing the show as much as we normally do this year, we did catch some fun peeks from our booth.

Leelo, from The Fifth Element, "Multi Pass"

Wonder Heros

The Green Hornet (Pretty cute huh!?)

Gladiators, they remained in character and never smiled. Yes, those are their muscles, drool.

Fred Flintstone, YAH-BAH-DAH-BAH-DO!

Cat Woman, strike a pose, MEOW!

QuanYin or Asian Princess?



Pink was a popular color for hair this year.



and the most clever, in my opinion....

AquaMan and one of the guys from BP!

Photos by me-self (Roxana Villa), Eve Neuhart and Maestro Gregorio.

Love Notes 2010

In February of last year I created special little Valentines for a few individuals within my sphere. For the most part the individuals were those who had shown quite a bit of support through out the year, mostly composed of those glorious patrons we artists adore.

The intention was triple fold: 1. Promote. 2. Take advantage of the holiday to create a special one of a kind item for specific folk. 3. Get creative and do some painting.

While in the large studio one day I discovered a little gift I had created for Greg while he was working in Texas. The box was a simple heart shaped, cardboard shaped box picked up at the craft store. I painted it with my acrylics adding a few decoupage items and then filling with caramels, one of his favorite candies. This gift was made out of love and longing. He worked in Texas for 16 months, both of us flying back and forth for short little visits.

I came upon the box rather auspiciously while I was mentioning to Greg that as an illustrator I would use the holidays to do special promotions and thought it would be good to do the same my perfumes. As I was talking I caught site of the box. Ah-hah! I could re-create these boxes and fill them with a few little pots of solid perfumes!


So I did. In the process, the idea to create the chocolate natural perfumes was birthed. Albeit I had no idea what a challenge that would be both from a packaging and fragrance aspect. A year later, here they are. Samplers were sent to a small, exclusive group, including some of the same sweethearts as last year.

In the works are more, to fill the large heart box with eleven chocolate delights and body butter to slather all over oneself or perhaps ones lover.